Gowthaman Ragothaman named global chief strategy officer for Mindshare FAST

Mindshare is placing its FAST (Future Adaptive Specialist Team) integrated performance unit at the heart of its business as part of an ongoing transformation programme evolving the agency into an Adaptive Marketing organisation.According to the agency, FAST is an integrated service that dovetails with traditional media planning and buying services, enabling maximum efficiency in driving insights, targeting, allocating investment, activating and optimising across all media.Norm Johnston (pictured), formerly Mindshare global chief strategy and digital officer, will take the dual role of global chief digital officer, Mindshare and global CEO of FAST as part of the move.Gowthaman Ragothaman, currently Mindshare APAC chief operating officer, will be taking the role of global chief strategy officer for FAST. He has held the COO role for over three years and was also previously SEA CEO of Mindshare for over three years.Barry Lee, currently head of the London-based Mindshare Worldwide FAST Hub, will take the additional role of chief product officer for FAST. Tom Johnson, currently performance marketing director at Mindshare Worldwide, will be taking up the role of chief client officer for FAST. Adam Ray, formerly global head of programmatic at Mindshare Worldwide, will be assuming the role of chief innovation officer for FAST.The global FAST team will be supported by the regional FAST Hub leaders: Robin Wong (APAC), Matias Galimberti (LATAM) and Brian Decicco (NA).Nick Emery, Mindshare global CEO, said: "Clients need us to marry our abilities in brand building and outcome based performance marketing. FAST has been a key part of our overall integrated offer to clients and with Norm’s leadership team we are looking forward to helping our clients achieve greater success. There is much more to come on our transformation journey."Norm Johnston, Mindshare worldwide chief digital officer and CEO of FAST, said: "We believe that modern Adaptive Marketers need to be experts in both brand and performance marketing and that only by offering an integrated approach will we truly achieve success for our clients, making their messaging relevant, timely and targeted whether it is brand or demand in nature. That is why FAST sits at the heart of an integrated Mindshare offering, not as an external agency."